High pressure biomass conversion processes for biofuels and chemicals production

COTABARREN, N.; SOTO, G.; HEGEL, P.; PEREDA, S.

Concepción

Congreso; 3er Congreso Iberoamericano, 4to congreso latinoamericano, 2 simposio internacional de materiales lignocelulósicos; 2015

UDT, U. de Concepción

High pressure supercritical alcohol processing of biomass and vegetable oils hasbeen the subject of many research works in the last decades. There are manysources of non-edible vegetable oil that can be a sustainable raw material forchemicals and liquid biofuels production. This technology is versatile and allows treating microalgae, agro-industrial residues, and non-edible vegetable oils. Inthis work, the non-catalytic supercritical alcoholysis of different substrates at hightemperatures (240 °C to 350 °C) and moderated pressures (80 bar to 200 bar) is presented. Bio-oils with high contents of fatty esters and other valuable chemicals were obtained. Moreover, a high pressure technology for the fractionation of fatty acid esters and acylglycerides up to high purity is presented. The integration of the discussed technologies may contribute to pave the way towards oil-based second generation biorefinery development.